Care sector payroll
The sector where minimum wage compliance is hardest
Care payroll carries risks that most sectors do not: sleep-in shifts, travel between calls and rota patterns that make average hourly rates genuinely difficult to calculate.
Overview
Why care is different.
A domiciliary care worker may do twelve calls in a day with travel between each one. Whether that travel time counts toward working time — and therefore toward their average hourly rate for minimum wage purposes — is exactly the sort of question that produces underpayment findings.
Sleep-in shifts raise similar questions, and the legal position in this area has been litigated repeatedly. We process carefully, flag what we see and keep records that would stand up to scrutiny. Where a policy question needs a legal answer, we say so.
- Rota-based weekly or monthly processing
- Call-by-call and shift-based hours
- Travel time processed as you instruct
- Sleep-in and waking-night shifts
- Enhanced rates for weekends and bank holidays
- National Minimum Wage average rate monitoring
- Age-banded rate checking
- Holiday accrual for variable hours
- Statutory payments and absence
- Pension assessment and contributions
- Digital payslips accessible to staff
- Records retained to evidence compliance
Compliance points we watch
Six things we check every run.
These are the areas where care providers most often find a problem later, so we look at them as a matter of routine.
Average hourly rate
Total pay against total working time, not the headline rate.
Travel between calls
Recorded consistently and treated as you have instructed.
Sleep-in treatment
Applied per your policy, with the position clearly documented.
Age bands
Rates rechecked as staff cross a threshold.
Deductions
Uniform and similar deductions can push pay below minimum wage.
Records
Kept in a form that could evidence compliance to an inspector.
Next step
Get a care payroll quote
Tell us how many staff you employ and how your rotas and calls are recorded, and we will come back with a written proposal.
Get a payroll quote
Three steps. We price on what your payroll actually involves, not a headcount guess.
Your payroll enquiry has been received.
We will review your requirements and come back with a written quote and a proposed switching timetable. If your next pay run is at risk, call us and say so.
Questions
Common questions
It depends on the arrangement and how the shift operates in practice, and this has been the subject of significant litigation. We will process sleep-ins according to your policy and document the treatment clearly. If you have not taken advice on your own arrangement, it is worth doing — the financial exposure if it is wrong can be considerable.
Travel between assignments during a working day is generally treated as working time, which affects minimum wage calculations. Travel from home to a first call is treated differently. We will follow your instructions and flag anything that looks likely to create a shortfall.
Yes, in most cases. Care rostering systems generally export hours in a usable format and we would rather take your data directly than have your coordinators re-key it.
Everything Managed. Nothing Overlooked.
Everything managed. Nothing overlooked.
One accountable team across property, payroll, people and contracts.